SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- The Utah Jazz are securing their place
in the playoffs while the Washington Wizards are watching their
postseason hopes fade away.

Karl Malone had 23 points and eight rebounds and John Stockton
added 19 points and seven assists to lead the Jazz to a 94-79
triumph over the Wizards.

Utah has won three of four on the heels of a four-game slide
and have a 1 1/2 game lead on the ninth-place Los Angeles
Clippers for the final Western Conference playoff spot.

Washington has split the first six games of a season-high
seven-game road trip but is three games out of the playoff
picture in the East.

The Wizards celebrated Michael Jordan's return from knee
surgery on Wednesday with a victory over the lowly Denver
Nuggets. Jordan returned to the Delta Center for the first time
since Game Six of the 1998 NBA Finals, when he hit the
game-winning jumper to lift the Chicago Bulls to their sixth
title in eight seasons.

"It was kind of like a circus here because Michael was here,"
Malone said. "Our guys just came out and played. I've been been
doing it for 17 years and played against him a lot, it doesn't
do anything for me."

The Jazz never trailed after the first half and had a 63-56
edge with 2:47 left in the third quarter before carrying a 13-5
run into the fourth quarter.

John Starks nailed two jumpers and Greg Ostertag scored all
three of his points during the spurt, which gave Utah a 76-61
cushion with 9:35 to play.

Christian Laettner scored six consecutive points to bring the
Wizards within 83-75 with 3:33 remaining, but Starks and Bryon
Russell made consecutive layups to seal the victory.

Malone made 7-of-14 shots from the floor and sank two
3-pointers in a game for the fourth time in his career.

"You come out and play and try to do what you're capable of
doing and that's it," Malone said. "Some nights you shoot the
ball well and some nights you don't."

Russell scored 11 points and rookie Andrei Kirilenko added
eight off the bench for the Jazz, who shot just 44 percent
(34-of-77) but scored 24 points off 12 offensive rebounds.

Washington shot only 34 percent (26-of-77) due to poor
performances by Jordan and Richard Hamilton, who combined to
make only 6-of-23 attempts.

"The Jazz played great defense tonight, I was very impressed,"
Washington coach Doug Collins said. "They did a great job on
Rip Hamilton. We had a lot guys who had off shooting night but
that was because of the Jazz defense."

Hamilton finished with 14 points and Jordan added 11 in 22
minutes off the bench for the Wizards, who have lost 14 of
their last 15 visits to Utah.

"My knee feels good," Jordan said. "My minutes are increasing
and my activity is increasing. I am not trying to overexert
myself, so we are taking it pretty slow and each game I would
like to see my minutes move up a little bit."